Technically, these are the programs that will play with a one-game disadvantage this season.

To illustrate, South Carolina will play North Carolina, Clemson, UCF and FCS Citadel in 2015, while fellow SEC East member Georgia will square off with Georgia Tech, ULM, Georgia Southern and FCS Southern.

Even though both teams hail from the same conference and division, it’s not quite an apples-to-apples comparison.

Of the 64 programs in the Power-Five leagues, only 15, or 23%, will play two Power opponents out of conference this season. The honor roll includes a whopping eight ACC programs (57% of the conference), four Big Ten teams and then one member apiece from the Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC.

It’s important to remember that the ACC, Big Ten and SEC all play four non-conference games, while the Big 12 and Pac-12 play only three.

This not only makes it easier to understand why the Big 12 and Pac-12 don’t have more members playing two Power foes, it also makes the SEC’s lack of representation here even more dubious.

Note: BYU and Notre Dame will be considered Power Five non-conference opponents by the ACC and SEC moving forward. Both are considered as such for this article.

Clemson played two Power opponents as recently as last season when it lost to No. 12 Georgia in the opener and then beat South Carolina in the finale.

The last time the Tigers didn’t play two Power games was in 2009, when they squared off with Middle Tennessee, TCU (then a Mountain West member), FCS Coastal Carolina and the Gamecocks.

Moving forward, Clemson has two Power foes scheduled outside of ACC play each of the next six seasons, or through 2020. Future opponents in addition to the annual fixture with South Carolina are Auburn (2016 and 2017), Texas A&M (2018 and 2019) and Notre Dame (2020).

Georgia Tech hasn’t squared off with two non-ACC Power teams since 2011, when it beat Kansas 66-24 early and then lost to No. 13 Georgia 31-17 in the finale.

The Yellow Jackets have two Power opponents scheduled six of the next ten seasons, adding Vanderbilt (2016), Notre Dame (2019, 2021 and 2024) and Ole Miss (2022 and 2023) to their standing date with Georgia.

The Cavaliers played two power-foes out of ACC play as recently as 2012, when they edged Penn State and lost to No. 17 TCU (its first season in the Big 12).

Virginia won’t get double punched again until 2019 when it plays BYU (technically a Power team for scheduling purposes beginning in 2016 for the SEC and 2017 for the ACC) and Notre Dame. After that, it’s Illinois and the Irish slated for 2021.

Virginia Tech hasn’t stepped up this big in non-conference play since 2009, when it opened with No. 5 Alabama in Atlanta and then faced then Big 12 member Nebraska (No. 19). That team finished 10-3 and ranked No. 10 in the final AP.

The Hokies will double-up again next season with Tennessee (at Bristol Motor Speedway) and Notre Dame. After that they have multiple foes in 2020 (Penn State and Michigan), 2021 (Michigan, West Virginia and Notre Dame), 2023 (Purdue and Rutgers), 2024 (Wisconsin and Rutgers) and 2025 (Penn State and Wisconsin).

Rutgers hasn’t played two Power teams outside of conference play since 2006, when it opened up with back-to-back wins at North Carolina and vs. Illinois. That was also the year it went 11-2 and finished ranked No. 12 in the final AP.

The Scarlet Knights’ next big splash comes in 2018, when they’ll travel to Kansas and then square-off with Miami (Fla.).

Comments (21)

Classifying Notre Dame as a nonconference is what’s messing up this whole list and making the ACC look a lot better than it really is in this regard. Letting ND have their independence cake and eat the ACC cake too is just ridiculous

Regardless of the ND agreement with the ACC, a lot of the teams would play 2 power 5 teams in a season. ND has always played ACC teams. I think everyone should schedule the same! If the ACC refuses to go to 9 conference games then it should be 8 conference games, 2 power 5 games, 1 group 5 game, and an FCS game or 2 group 5 teams and just skip the FCS games!

I’m only bringing this up because you acknowledged BYU as a Power foe (for scheduling purposes) in the Virginia blurb. If you include BYU then Michigan plays 3, Nebraska plays 2 (Miami), and UCLA plays 2 (Virginia).

The tone of this and similar articles bothers me a little, is Virginia Tech really stepping up their scheduling by playing at Purdue? Is that a tougher game than playing at East Carolina? If your going to compare schedules based off of conference prestige and perceived overall power level, please ovoid saying the actual power level of schedule is altered by having more or less Power opponents. It should be about the teams they are playing, not the conferences that their opponents hail from when discussing difficulty of schedule. Case in point Florida State played and beat 3 Power teams out of conference last season, but everybody were still claiming they played a weak or mediocre schedule.

We can nitpick here, and point out that Duke is probably not as good as Boise. Certainly, they’re not all playing two monsters, but no one snuck onto this list be scheduling Indiana and Vandy either. One ‘good, and one weaker P5 is still doing better than most any other P5 team. I applaud these teams for making more of an effort.

That is the bottom-line. Some may scoff, but I give Rutgers some credit for at least scheduling two “non blue-blood” P5 teams than a school playing an FBS school and three traditionally lower-tier teams from the Sun Belt or MAC. At the least try to instead schedule the more stable G5 schools like Boise, Cincy, UCF or East Carolina. Do a 2 for 1 where they play at your place twice in exchange for a “home game” in their backyard like Paul Brown Stadium for Cincy, or in Charlotte for East Carolina, etc. Just a thought.

All of this demonstrates why the Power 5 need to institute standard scheduling rules that apply cross the board. I’m fine if some conferences want to play 9 conference games and others want to play 8 but I think everyone needs to play at least 10 of their 12 against Power 5 foes.

Every P5 team should play 10 P5 teams a season. No excuses. 2 cupcake games to do whatever you want is more than enough. Anybody with 8conf games should schedule 2, 9conf games should schedule 1. You can do this with some effort and still make 7 home games (for the schools that say they need this or use it as an excuse to schedule light)

I think all the teams in the 5 Power Confrences should play 9 conference games, 1 team from a Power Conference (a mid-major, or an FCS school by their choice). The ACC scheduling is a joke. You only play a team from the other division (unless it’s a crossover game), once every 6 or 7 years. The ACC only does this so they can get as many teams in bowls as they can. Thy sent 4 teams with 6-6 records last year. That is why they are the 5th best conference of the Power 5.